LoL: Worlds 2025 Power Rankings

Worlds 2025 will start this Tuesday, and the greatest League of Legends teams will battle to lift the Summoner's Cup. Our Sheep Esports reporters have compiled a Power Ranking based on performance, potential, and momentum — no leaks, just pure analysis.

As last year, Gen.G arrive as conquerors. But unlike last year, they come with the LCK championship trophy in hand. Dominant to an extreme, with a roster of five players each capable of single-handedly winning games, they are currently considered one of the greatest lineups in League of Legends history. With an MSI title this year and the record for the longest win streak in history, they aim for nothing less than the World Championship to cement their legacy.

With the arrival of Choi "Zeus" Woo-je, Hanwha Life Esports made a statement at the very start of 2025. The team captured the LCK Cup and then dominated the winter champions of other regions by sweeping the First Stand without faltering. Remaining among the leaders of the LCK, HLE delivered an excellent season, with only one real stumble: a 3-0 defeat to T1 in the Road to MSI, which cost them a spot at both the Mid-Season Invitational and the Esports World Cup. Above all, HLE—like the rest of the league—struggled against Gen.G, falling 3-1 in the grand final to the eventual Worlds favorites. For HLE, the challenge is to overcome this nemesis to secure Zeus a third consecutive domestic title, while also aiming to deliver Han "Peanut" Wang-ho a long-awaited world championship before his retirement.

The LPL champion enters the competition with very high new ambitions. With two previous participations, their worst result so far is a semifinals appearance. However, although they decided to keep their roster from last year in last offseason, they experienced a rollercoaster year. With three junglers across three splits, they are entering the tournament with a six-man roster and a more versatile identity, which could be very advantageous in this first edition in Fearless. It’s worth noting that they are the only 100% Chinese team in the competition, and Zhuo "Knight" Ding is on a true mission once again—to pursue his first major title and also to bring the cup back to the LP, which has been missing for them for four years.

Despite a difficult year in the LCK and entering as the fourth seed, these are the Worlds — and this is T1. The most decorated organization in the history of the competition, by far, with five stars on their jersey, including two from the last two editions. A third consecutive title wouldn’t surprise many. Still, T1 will first have to make it through a decisive best-of-five in the Play-In against Invictus Gaming to reach the Worlds Main Stage.

Anyone’s Legend was hardly the most anticipated team in the LPL at the start of the season. Yet AL quickly asserted itself at the top of the standings. Finalists of Split 1, Lee "Tarzan" Seung-yong and his teammates went on to win Split 2 and delivered on the international stage. AL was the strongest Chinese representative, defeating HLE and T1 at EWC but also pushing Gen.G to five games on two separate occasions. Returning from the Esports World Cup, AL could not sustain its momentum and was overtaken domestically by Bilibili Gaming and Top Esports. The team ultimately qualified for Worlds on championship points earned across the year, entering the tournament with both valuable international experience and significant unanswered questions.

Finalists of LPL Split 3, Top Esports still had to go through the Regional Finals to qualify for Worlds as their region’s third seed. The memory of the team’s huge failure at the First Stand still lingers, but the fact remains that this roster is undeniably strong. This will likely be Yu "JackeyLove" Wen-Bo’s final appearance before taking a break for a medical reason. While the team has shown moments of imbalance, one thing is certain: if TES are to shine at Worlds, it will have to come through a standout performance from Seo "Kanavi" Jin-hyeok. The Korean jungler has been the driving force behind TES all year and heads into the tournament in excellent form after a phenomenal summer.

Clearly the surprise of the LCK Summer Split, KT Rolster went from being a mid-table team fighting to stay competitive and qualify for Worlds to the squad that took down Gen.G and secured an early Worlds spot. Their playoff run afterward was disappointing, with losses to both HLE and Gen.G, but the essential part is done — the ticket to the Worlds Main Stage is in hand. As has been the case for years, Gwak "Bdd" Bo-seong stands above the rest; he’s the heart of the team and the source of KT’s creative plays. Moon "Cuzz" Woo-chan has also been in great form, forming a strong and reliable duo with his midlaner.

The Pearl of the Pacific is one of the biggest dark horses at Worlds 2025. In its first year, the LCP already found its emperor. CTBC Flying Oyster’s dominance is unprecedented: just one loss all year and a grand slam with three well-deserved titles in three splits. Their youth of the roster may be their biggest weakness, making this Worlds a true test for Tsai "HongQ" Ming-Hong and his team. However, they already brought T1 to game 5 at MSI, and have been scrimming a lot LCK teams in recent months. They aim to reach at least the quarterfinals and be the first Southeast Asian team in the top 8 since Flash Wolves and ahq eSports Club in 2015.

The West’s biggest hope enters Worlds with high ambitions. Using the same roster as in 2024, when they nearly upset Gen.G in the quarterfinals, they return stronger after another year dominating North America. Led by Kacper "Inspired" Słoma, they embody Bai "369" Jiahao’s words: "Western teams are at their strongest this year." It remains to be seen if they can make their best run ever in a tough field. They arrive with potentially crazy strategies and extremely clean gameplay. However, they might struggle against LPL teams that play in a more chaotic style.

G2 Esports gradually built momentum throughout the season. Although the Samurais fell short in the finals of the first two LEC splits and therefore missed the First Stand, they used MSI and the EWC to expose their two new recruits, Rudy “SkewMond” Semaan and Labros “Labrov” Papoutsakis, to international competition. While the results were unremarkable, these experiences served as a turning point for the roster. G2 then dominated the LEC Summer Split and reclaimed its domestic crown. After two years of failing to reach the Worlds playoffs, Rasmus “Caps” Winther and his teammates arrive determined to finally shatter their ceiling.

After five years without qualifying for any international event, Invictus Gaming are finally back on the Worlds stage. Fittingly, it’s with Kang "TheShy" Seung-lok and Song "Rookie" Eui-jin—the duo that defined their golden era—that IG make their return. Their year has been full of twists, including a Summer roster change that saw Yan "Wei" Yang-Wei replace Zhao "Jiejie" Li-Jie in the jungle. IG will have to fight through the Play-In stage and face T1 to reach the Main Stage, a daunting challenge for which they’ll heavily rely on the firepower of Chen "GALA" Wei to overcome.

The LEC’s runner-up does not arrive as a great conqueror. More stable and deserving than last year, when they qualified with a 45.45% win rate, they are nevertheless clearly behind G2 Esports, who dominated them throughout the Summer, both on stage and in scrims. With their new midlaner, they aim to avoid embarrassment and put in a better performance in the Swiss Stage than in the past two years, where they finished with records of 1-3 and 0-3. Led by captain Javier "Elyoya" Prades, making his sixth consecutive Worlds appearance, they can at least compete without pressure.

Qualified for their 13th Worlds — and ninth in a row — Fnatic once again return to the biggest stage of the year. This time, their qualification wasn’t easy, as they secured Europe’s third seed. Fnatic are far from favorites to lift the Summoner’s Cup; the 2011 world champions will need to pull off an upset to make it out of the Swiss Stage. Against the Asian powerhouses, as well as representatives from the LCP, LTA, and LEC, Fnatic will have to significantly step up their game. A quarterfinal appearance would already be a remarkable achievement.

Team Secret Whales qualified for Worlds in their first year after merging Team Secret and Team Whales under the LCP banner. They peaked in the Summer playoffs with key wins, including a sweep of GAM to secure their spot. Their roster features versatile toplaners and a promising young mid-jungle duo, led by star support Đinh "Taki" Anh Tài with international experience. However, TSW enters Worlds with low expectations for a deep run due to limited international experience and the challenge of facing faster, more chaotic LEC, LCK, and LPL teams, which could expose their inconsistency and test their adaptability.

On August 15, PSG Talon opened its LCP Season Finals with eight straight losses, and Huang "Maple" Yi-tang's return seemed destined to end in disappointment. Then, momentum shifted. Following two wins in the Group Seeding Bracket, PSG produced two crucial victories in the playoffs that propelled them into the upper bracket final—and, with it, a Worlds berth. Although they later fell to CFO and Team Secret Whales, the most emblematic team of the region in recent years once again secured a place at the sport’s biggest event.

Coach Christopher "SeeEl" Lee's words in his latest interview with Sheep Esports perfectly capture the mindset and expectations around LTA's second seed: "I’m not going to promise the world or say we’ll destroy everyone. What I promise is that we’ll try really hard. And if we do, every team is beatable." Despite being underestimated, Vivo Keyd Stars are one of the competition’s best-hidden underdogs. As the sole Brazilian representative this year, they carry the hopes of all South America, just one year after paiN Gaming's historic Main Event qualification.

In a surprise twist, 100 Thieves earned the right to one final dance. The team, which will leave League of Legends after these Worlds, began the third split of LTA North in disastrous fashion with three straight defeats before reinventing itself. 100T rallied to reach the playoffs, where they toppled two of the league’s giants—Team Liquid and Cloud9—back-to-back, opening the door to the interregional qualifier against South American teams. There, 100T confidently dispatched paiN Gaming and RED Canids to book their ticket to Worlds. Yet a subsequent loss to Vivo Keyd Stars highlighted their limitations, leaving them with a steep challenge ahead if they are to contend with the world’s elite.